This is a great year for Masters of the Universe fans as not this is the final year of all the vintage Masters of the Universe Classics figures in Classics coming out from Mattel, but a lot of additional products are also making their way into the hands of collectors this year. One of which is non other than the Mini-Comic Collection that was included with the 1980’s Masters of the Universe action figures.
Back then, the mini-comics were included with the toys for one purpose, to promote the toy line for Mattel. The story telling is simply top notch, and even if you read all of the mini-comics when they were first published, you will be able to enjoy it once again now later in life. This collection offers you a lot for your money. Not only does it reprint mini-comics, but it also features all of the material listed below.
This year, Dark Horse Comics is offering all of the classic mini-comics from not only the He-Man and The Masters of the Universe 1980’s (which includes She-Ra comics), but also The New Adventures of He-Man, Masters of the Universe Classics mini-comics, booklets ( “Power of Point Dread/Danger at Castle Grayskull” and “The Power of the Evil Horde”), the 2002 Target exclusive He-Man and Skeletor comic, two unpublished comics – “Return From Terror Island” & 2003 Smash Blade He-Man/Spin Blade Skeletor, never-before-seen vintage minicomic script “Ring of Dreams,” and Interviews as well as some trivia-notes. This book is massive with 1,232 pages of all Masters of the Universe goodness.
Back in 1981 when some of the He-Man and The Masters of the Universe mini-comics were published, many of today’s fans were too young to enjoy these comics. Those fans were unlikely to enjoy those comics as finding some of those mini-comics would prove to be hard, expensive, and time consuming. Even when the internet came around, it’s unlikely that at least some or most of them took the time to go back and track some of those mini-comics down on sites like eBay (we found listings HERE). Now for the first-time, Masters of the Universe fans can read an entire collection of these mini-comics in one book.
The feedback from fans on this has been very positive and we think that everyone can agree with this statement that a book like this is simply long overdue. For us, this is a great way to catch up on some long lost reading and you can bet we’ll be reading some of these stories.
Thank you to Dark Horse Comics for sending us the He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe Mini-Comic Collection for us to review.
Availability: November 2015
The book is a hardcover, well constructed, with great paper quality, and it even includes a bookmark. Upon flipping through, we were immediately brought to Terror Claws Skeletor and Flying Fists He-Man, which were both recently released in Classics. Except for the toys, we never had the opportunity to enjoy other source material for these designs. For us, this is a fun way to enjoy the toys all over again. If it wasn’t for these designs, the toys would never had existed. And that would have been most unfortunate.
Slimed He-Man? Yes! This would certainly make a great variant in Masters of the Universe Classics, chase figure, or as a convention exclusive. As we continue to flip through, some new concepts were introduced to us that we previously were unaware of, or simply had forgotten about over time. In this image, He-Man looks to have the appearance of Swamp Thing, with being covered in green slime, and big red eyes make him look very different. On page 664, He-Man gets slimed by Hordak, and is transformed into a slime master and ordered by Hordak to destroy Skeletor.
If you recall the blue Mer-Man Toys “R” Us exclusive two pack figure that was included with Aquaman, you would also be aware that this was Mer-Man as he was featured in the mini-comics. That was one great offer and we hope that most of you took advantage of that Mer-Man variant. If not, head on over to eBay.
One of the very first pages that we came across Point Dread & Talon Fighter Set shown in the mini-comic. That was released this month from Mattycollector, and we will be reviewing it this month. On page 213, take a look at the Point Dread & Talon Fighter (we lost the exact page where this image was taken from).
This book has it all. There is so much to cover here that we simply don’t want to ruin any surprises for you! So make sure to buy one today!
We’ve taken some 40+ images below. You’ll just have to buy the book to view more.
Overall:
The He-Man and The Masters of the Universe Mini-Comic Collection is by far one of the best collected editions released in recent years and we promise that long time fans won’t want to miss this!
Highly Recommended!
Purchase:
Things From Another World (TFAW)
